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| A Saudi woman looks at her mobile phone in the capital Riyadh (AFP Photo/ FAYEZ NURELDINE) |
Riyadh
(AFP) - Saudi courts will notify women by text message when they get divorced,
in a new regulation that took effect on Sunday, officials said.
The measure
approved by the justice ministry appears aimed at curbing seemingly rampant
cases of men secretly ending marriages without informing their wives.
"Women...
will be notified of any changes to their marital status via text message,"
the justice ministry said in a statement carried by state-run Al-Ekhbariya news
channel and other local media.
"Women
in the kingdom will be able to view documents related to the termination of
their marriage contracts through the ministry's website."
The move
comes as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler spearheads a
liberalisation drive in the conservative kingdom, which has some of the world's
toughest restrictions on women.
In June
last year, women celebrated taking the wheel for the first time in decades as
the kingdom overturned the world's only ban on female motorists.
The kingdom
has also allowed women to enter sports stadiums, previously a male-only arena,
and is pushing for greater participation of women in the workforce as it seeks
to diversify its oil-dependent economy.
But in
tandem with the reforms, the kingdom has seen a wave of arrests of women
activists in recent months as it steps up a crackdown on dissent.
The country
also faces criticism over its male guardianship system, which allows men to
exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female
relatives.
On Sunday,
an 18-year-old Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport said she would be killed if
she was repatriated by Thai immigration officials.
Pleading
her case on Twitter, the woman -- who wanted to seek asylum in Australia --
said she was trying to flee her family, who subjected her to physical and
psychological abuse.
"I'm sure 100% they [my family] will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail" - Rahaf Mohammed M Alqunun, 18, tells AFP she will be killed if she is repatriated by Thai immigration officialshttps://t.co/TZOHgSs7r8— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 6, 2019
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